By the Mouth of the Mute
by Sleeping-force's-inside
Summary: Collection of One-shots. What did the mortals on the side-lines think and feel when the great Heroes and Gods wrote history? What were their stories? R & E & R Characters relevant to most recent Chapter. Fourth Chapter: Minthe
1. Medusa

**Category:** **Greek Mythology**

**Rating:** **T**

**Couples:** **Depend on Myth**

**Warnings:**** Depend on Myth**

**Myth:** **Medusa **

**Copyright:** **Greek Gods © By Whomever they belong, Plot & OC´s © by me**

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

She was jealous, she would not deny it. Medusa was the fairest of all the priestesses of Athena in the temple, and the most skilled in the crafts they had to learn. It was to be expected when comparing a child of Gods to mortals. At least that is what Medusa claimed, stating that she and her two sisters were children of the Sea-gods Keto and Phorcys. Since she had not been smitten for those claims yet, the other priestesses assumed she spoke the truth.

Argiro prayed to her deity that Athena might forgive her these thoughts: after all, Medusa was one the higher-ranked priestesses of this temple and therefore favored by the mighty Goddess. She should not have these thoughts, but Eris had planted them in her mind and sowed jealousy in her heart.

She even went out to Aphrodite's temple nearby, bringing a sacrifice to the Love-goddess that she may ensure that the hate and jealousy would be a thing of the past.

One day she was tending the goats of the temple when commotion drew her to abandon them. Together with several other priestesses Argiro ran into the temple, her bronze hair flying around her. Screams came from inside the most sacred room of the temple, where very few were allowed.

"We cannot enter." An old priestess spoke, her hair grey with age. "Athena would smite us down for daring to assume ourselves higher than we are."

"But should we not aid whoever calls for aid so?" A young priestess asked. "Let me enter, old one, and if Athena wishes to punish me, I shall accept that punishment as I deserve. But my heart commands me to go to that screamers' aid."

The old one nodded in acceptance and the young priestess walked up to the door. Just as she was to open it, a long and mournful howl came from inside and she jumped back in fright.

It grew silent, only sobbing coming from within.

The priestess pushed open the door, allowing the light of Helios' magnificent chariot to illuminate the room.

"Great Gods above…" The old one breathed, her walking-stick falling from her frozen hands.

In front of them lay Medusa, fair and golden-haired Medusa. Her robes had been torn from her body and the golden plate on which the daily fruits for sacrifice were carried lay on the ground, the fruits having spilled all around her. One of the oranges was smashed, releasing its flagrant smell into the air. Yet it was not enough to cover the scent of blood and something else.

"Who would dare assault a priestess in the Holiest of rooms in this temple?" The High-priestess who had just appeared demanded in shock. "Who would dare challenge Lady Athena so?"

She send out several of the priestesses to warn the leaders of the city and ordered the others gone save herself, Argiro and the old one.

"Help me clean this." She ordered the young priestess at her side. "Old one, take Medusa to the priestess' rooms, take care of her."

They obeyed, but just as Argiro started picking up the spilled fruits the air around them grew heavy.

"How dare you?" The voice echoed in the room, causing her to drop the fruits and cover her ears. "How dare you lay with a man in MY TEMPLE?" The walls shook, dust falling down from between the stones. Birds flew up outside at the noise.

The three priestesses cowered as Medusa looked around.

"Forgive me, my lady, he forced me!" She cried her golden hair a disheveled mess around her head.

"And you tempted him!" The eyes of the statue glowed a silvery grey and the next moment a woman stood in front of it on the pedestal, her beauty terrible to behold. "You tempted my uncle to desecrate my holiest room!" Athena's silver eyes flashed in fury and her owl screeched in indignation. The Goddess smoothly stepped down the pedestal, advancing on Medusa. The sound of the slap echoed in the room, the stricken priestess flying through the air with the force behind it.

She landed exactly in front of Argiro, who dared not look away from her trembling hands.

"Because of you my temple is defiled!" Athena boomed, pointing at Medusa with an accusing finger. "You shall be punished for this!"

"NO!" Medusa howled, crawling forward. "Please, my Lady, have mercy!"

"Mercy on the one who defiled my temple?" Athena demanded. "Truly, you have taken leave of your senses!"

Argiro peeked up, looking at Medusa, half-turned towards the Goddess and the Goddess herself, Athena. She saw something change in the face of the God-child, her beautiful eyes hardening.

"Then I curse you, in the name of my parents!" Medusa screeched, spit flying out of her mouth. "How dare you punish a victim for a crime?"

Athena said nothing. Then she lifted her spear, bringing down its' blunt end on Medusa's chest hard. "Is the guilty party the one that tempted, or the one that could not resist temptation?" The Goddess evenly asked. "You tempted men with your golden hair and beauty. Now you shall lose both, to become so ugly that the mere sight of you shall turn them to stone."

Argiro gasped, watching in horror as Medusa started screaming once more, clawing at her entire body. Her golden hair let go in big tufts, coloring the ground golden. The skin of her bald head started to bulge and snakes sprouted from it, first no thicker than a hair but within moments as thick as her wrist. They hissed and twisted, snapping at the young woman while the rest of their body still transformed.

Next her bare legs were covered in scales and fused together. Argiro couldn't look away as the once-priestess writhed in front of her in agony. A hand appeared on the back of her head, pushing it down.

"Do not look." Came the whisper from the High-Priestess, who had crawled over to the shivering young woman. "Whatever happens, do not look." She slung her arm in front of Argiro's face, ensuring that she could not see anything.

The sound of something hitting the ground hard preceded a terrible silence. When the High-Priestess looked up, both Medusa and Athena were gone.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Argiro felt sick the next few days. She feared that she had caused Medusa's misfortune with her hate and jealousy and her thoughtless pleading of change to the Goddess of Love, who was fickle to say the least. Of course she did not tell anyone, fearing what they might do to her as punishment.

When she finally had recovered the High-Priestess gave her Medusa's job: carrying the daily sacrifices into the main chamber and keeping the altar in that chamber clean. "Athena did not strike you down for being there. Therefore you can go there safely."

Soon two beautiful women came, bearing with them a perfect bull. "We wish to sacrifice this bull and plead with Athena. We are sisters of Medusa and wish to beg to the Goddess to restore her to how she was." They stated and the High Priestess allowed them entry.

Later that day she came to clean up after the sacrifice. She opened the doors, a bucket of water in one hand.

It was then that madness struck Argiro, for in front of the altar stood the High Priestess, turned to stone and on the ground were the two women, their looks as twisted as those of Medusa.

The bucket fell on the ground, rolling down the marble steps as Argiro ran from the temple, through the city and out into the surrounding lands. It was the last anyone ever saw of the Priestess of Athena. Yet her name would be forgotten in the grand scheme of the Birth of the Gorgons and now none recall the young priestess who called such evil over an innocent woman with simple jealousy and hate.


	2. Lycaon

**Category:** **Greek Mythology**

**Rating:** **T**

**Couples:** **Depend on Myth**

**Warnings:**** Depend on Myth**

**Myth:** **Lycaon **

**Copyright:** **Greek Gods © By Whomever they belong, Plot & OC´s © by me**

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

She was not entirely sure what was going through her husband's head. She most assuredly was not.

He had come to the rooms she had in his palace and demanded her child, her little Nyctimus. How was she supposed to deny him? He had given her everything: riches, power and most importantly a child she could love…

It wasn't like he loved her. Well, he loved her looks, that much was sure… He kept calling her Elaphina – doe – because of her big brown eyes. Did he even know her real name? Probably not.

Many sons. He had so many sons with several wives and she couldn't help but wonder of how many he knew the name. Most likely of only one or two, if any. Sons, sons… That was all he cared about.

And now he had taken hers. Why did it have to be hers? She didn't know why, but she felt like she should have stopped him somehow.

There were rumors of Zeus visiting the Arcadian King at times. Was he intending to introduce Nyctimus to the god? Oh, Great gods above, what was going to happen to her only child?

Soon she could not take it anymore and left her rooms. She swiftly walked through the halls of her husband, weaving around the corners to the main sanctuary: a massive altar for Zeus.

She fell on her knees.

"Zeus, I beg of you, no matter what happens, spare my child." She prayed. "I fear for him."

She kept up the chant, kneeling on the unforgiving marble. Above her birds circled in the air. She looked up when another appeared and gasped. An eagle!

Was it a sign from Zeus? She hoped so and all but clung to the altar as she continued her prayer. "Spare my child, Great Zeus, spare my Nyctimus. I beg you…"

She screamed in surprise when great clamor rose from deeper in the palace. No…

A mother who wishes to protect her child shall be among the fastest of her kind. In such ways, Elaphina all but flew through the palace-corridors, her long and elaborate dress flying after her like wings.

As she crossed the gardens to the dining-hall the sky darkened, turning near-black. Oh Lynaos, what have you done? Have you truly challenged the King of the gods?

She came to a skidding stop at the entrance, looking at the massive marble table in horror. It was overturned and the many rich foods on its' surface where scattered around the room. A pot of stew had ended up just in front of the door and she had to step back lest she stepped into it.

Lycaon was cowering just a short distance away, as were all of his sons. Except for one.

Her heart stopped for a moment when she realized that her treasure, her precious Nyctimus was nowhere to be seen.

"So this is your conduct?" The voice was deep, like the rumbling of thunder and for a moment she forgot her horror as she looked at the man standing at the other side of the room. He must have been seated in the seat of honor, but now he merely stood, the heavy chair as upturned as the table that separated them. "You would feed me – ME, ZEUS, KING OF THE GODS –your own child?" He pointed at the stew covering a great deal of the floor.

Only harpies could generate such sounds, the guards would later say, Zeus summoned harpies to punish our king and his sons. That was what they said, but it was a simple doe that generated the sound. She collapsed on the spot, her dress drinking the fluids of the stew as a desert the rain as she howled her horror and grief into the room.

Was it her voice, or was it the power of the god before her that shattered the roof? It turned to dust, raining down on the occupants of the room, covering them in flawless white.

Far above them the storm raged and lightning flashed. For a moment her howling was drowned out by the sound of thunder right beside her, and a bright flash blinded her even through her clenched eye-lids.

The room was suddenly so much emptier: only three remained. Lycaon's sons, his pride and joy, had been obliterated by Zeus' fury.

The god pointed at the stew and the flesh melted together again to form her precious boy.

But that was not the end of it all, because before he disappeared he took up a spoon that had fallen at his feet and threw it at Lycaon. It hit him square between the eyes, nearly catapulting him backwards.

Her husband was writhing in pain, something she took ever so slightly pleasure in. But she did not spare him a second glance as she helped her son out of the room. Let the wrath of the gods destroy Lycaon for all she cared.

She never saw the Peahen in the trees she passed underneath. The brown bird looked after her and then over to the dining-hall.

In honoring the one, you dishonor the other. Hera did not like the abandonment of the husband by the wife and she was swift to judge.

Zeus had turned Lycaon into a wolf, menacing to look at, his fur a perfect black and eyes as red as the blood of his son he had spilled.

Hera now commanded him to take as first prey the doe that lived in his palace.

After all, do wolves not hunt deer? Why then should the human-turned-wolf be any different?

Much was lost that day, most of all the innocence of a young boy, who suddenly found himself all alone in the world.


	3. Sisyphus

**Category:** **Greek Mythology**

**Rating:** **T**

**Couples:** **Depend on Myth**

**Warnings:**** Depend on Myth**

**Myth:** **Sisyphus and Thanatos **

**Copyright:** **Greek Gods © By Whomever they belong, Plot & OC´s © by me**

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

He was old. He was so old that he had long passed the Styx, that proud and infinite river separating the dead from the living. Or perhaps, one could consider he had never lived at all.

Charon pushed the boat to the other side again. Back and forth, again and again. It should have gotten boring, after the first few million times, but he was used to it. He had gotten quite good at distracting himself from all the upset souls.

"Too young. Yadda yadda… Why? Yadda, yadda…" That had gotten old a long time ago. He looked up as he neared the river-bank. There were only a few souls around – at least of those that could pay the fare – but his eyes widened marginally when he saw two solid bodies. He recognized one as Thanatos. What was he doing here?

"Let us cross alone." The son of Nyx demanded, holding the arm of the man beside him.

What was he supposed to do? He ordered the souls that had already entered his barge out, emptying it for the god. He ferried them across smoothly, Thanatos not once looking at either him or the man he was holding.

He briefly watched them go, before returning to ferry those souls over. Back and Forth, back and forth…

Time had little meaning in the Underworld, no ray of Helios pierced the gloom, even on the Blessed Fields of Elysium. Therefore he did not know how long after that incident it was that he had ran out of dead to ferry.

Only those without the required payment remained for a time. So he crossed the Styx with an empty boat, leaving it for the first time in millennia to walk to the House of Hades.

"Lord." He called. It felt strange to say something beside 'Open your mouth' after all these years.

"Charon?" Lord Hades was surprised to say the least as he watched the starved-looking man enter his halls.

"There are no more dead." He had never been good with words, preferring to say things as they were. "There have been no new arrivals for days now, my Lord."

Persephone, sitting on the throne beside Hades, looked at her husband in worry and surprise. Something like this had never happened before. Hades meanwhile looked like he had not in a long time: furious.

"I'll deal with it." He waved the ferryman away. Charon would never even contemplate disobeying, so he left the palace, returning to his empty ferry. Shortly afterwards the earth shook, a clear signal that Hades had torn through the crust separating the living from the dead to travel to Olympus.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The dead came, at long last, and they were lead by a man Charon had not seen since he had taken the staff and ferry of the Underworld. But he had heard of him, more than of any other man in existence: Ares.

To his surprise, he also recognized the man beside him: it was the very same Thanatos had lead into the Underworld a week or two prior. He looked a lot worse now, as if he had been beaten up. Well, considering it was Ares they were talking about, that was not so surprising really.

"Ferry me over." The War-god was very different from the few other gods that would come by, much crueler and certainly a lot colder as well. It even showed in his speech, so different from that of Thanatos.

"Yes." Charon was no fool, but even had it not been Ares, he'd still have done as asked. Something told him that this was more than a simple deliverance of a soul. People rarely enter the kingdom of Hades twice and certainly never escorted by gods that do not claim their souls.

Ares said nothing, but his anger soon smothered the lone mortal in the boat. The only sound around them was that of Charon's pole disappearing into the murky depths of the river, the souls on the far bank cowering from the burning aura of the son of Zeus.

Definitely an Olympian, Charon mused as a soft bump heralded their arrival at shore.

It was perhaps during the next crossing that Ares returned, alone this time. Why the god did not simply think himself to Olympus, he'd never know and he knew better than to ask.

"He actually managed to capture Thanatos." Ares leaned on the ship's prow. "Heh, gotta give it to that mortal, he has guts."

"Capture Thanatos?" Charon repeated.

"Chained him right up." Ares snickered. "Looked like a pig ready for slaughter. Except for that whole 'Death-god's caught, so no slaughter'-stick… Worst wars ever…"

That certainly explained some things. Charon glanced back to the palace in the far-away gloom.

The two immortals did not say anything until they reached the shore of the entrance.

Ares stepped out of the boat, growling at some of the ghosts, who only too eagerly fled. He laughed as he watched them scuttle away like a flock of chickens from a fox who had gotten into their pen.

"My Lord?" Charon called out as scaring the dead became boring to the fiery son of Hera and he turned to leave. "Who was that mortal?"

"Sisyphus, I believe was his name." Ares answered. "He has to push a boulder up a mountain now."

Charon nodded and would soon forget all about the man. There were so many who crossed, and a good part of them was due for punishment. One more or less made no difference, really…


	4. Minthe

**Category:** **Greek Mythology**

**Rating:** **T**

**Couples:** **Depend on Myth**

**Warnings:**** Depend on Myth**

**Myth:** **Minthe and Hades**

**Copyright:** **Greek Gods © By Whomever they belong, Plot & OC´s © by me**

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

How could her kin have been so foolish? More importantly, how had Eros _dared _do this?

Fall was always a time of dying among the plants, but this time Fall had turned into winter in not even a day. Bistonis rose from her lake to look at the surrounding forest. Lake Bistonis – yes, humans could be morons when naming things – was situated in the South-west of Thrace near where the island of Thasos rose from the sea. It was quite a way from most of the entrances of the Underworld, but even here the influence of Persephone's indignation could be felt.

The nymphs of her lake had fled into the warm sanctuaries of their homes, none noticing the Naiad of the lake climbing ashore and looking upon the dying trees. They were not meant to freeze this suddenly. The bark crumbled beneath her fingertips, leaves crackling as they fell to the ground, where they shattered into millions of pieces.

Ice was encroaching upon her shores, making the ground slippery and cold.

"Minthe, you foolish child!" Bistonis cried out. "See what you have done with your mad desire!?"

She had first heard of it a few days back from birds that were traveling North from Pylos. There was a mountain near the city where Minthe sometimes came to enjoy the sun after long periods of guarding her own body of water: the Cocytus, the River of Wailing, one of the five rivers encircling the Underworld.

But that mattered little now that Minthe had condemned herself to life as a plant, if the stories were to be believed. News traveled slowly, especially among the timeless of this world since they had no hurry and could afford to have slow contact with each other. At least, as far as the Naiads, Nymphs and Satyrs were concerned. The Gods needed to have the news the moment before it happened, almost…

This however was not Bistonis' problem at the moment – though a swift update on recent events would not hurt – that dubious honor fell to what she DID know. The birds had told her and her nymphs that Minthe had been singing Hades' praises as she was resting on the very mountain-top. It seemed the foolish Naiad had seen the Lord of the Underworld and not felt the sting of Eros' arrow. It had been of no consequence for a while, since nearly all Gods, safe perhaps Hephaistos, were always followed by some admirers. The problems started when foolish, oh so foolish Minthe had decided to _act_ on her feelings.

Bistonis cried out in frustrated anger again as she thought about her 'sister'. What had she been thinking? Probably nothing… Had she hoped dread Persephone would not notice her advances? Had she hoped that the Queen of the Underworld would not _care_?

The surface of the lake answered to her emotions, churning underneath the ice. All those warnings, all those precedents and Minthe had forgotten a simple, all-known fact: few of the Olympian Gods looked kindly upon someone seducing their spouses. Even Zeus, who slept with someone new approximately every month, had unleashed Tartarus upon earth when Hera had been courted by someone else – Ixion, if she remembered his name properly had been just as moronic and idiotic and several more things as Minthe had been just a few days ago – and having been forced into the relationship would not change anything about Persephone's sense of pride.

Mirthe had ignored all this and now the ones left had to deal with a winter only surpassed by the one Demeter had send all those years ago on the fateful day she had lost her beloved daughter.

Bistonis groaned, returning to the depths of her lake once more. There was nothing she could do, either for the humans or any other creatures living on the Earth.

As she faded from view, the ice expanded to cover the rest of the lake.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It was a few weeks later that Persephone's anger and indignation cooled some, allowing the Fall and Winter to warm to normal levels once more. The Naiad of the lake did not leave her waters, choosing to spend the two seasons deep under the surface.

Only when Spring had arrived, heralded by Persephone's return to her mother's side, rose she from the depths of the lake to the mortal world. It was as if nothing ever happened: the nymphs and satyrs were already frolicking on her beaches again.

She gracefully climbed ashore and walked into the woods. A sudden pungent, yet sweet smell startled her and she went looking for the source. The plant was still small, just having sprouted from the soft and moist soil. It seemed to hide in the shade of several other plants, as if afraid to be spotted. Yet the smell betrayed it, carrying news of its' presence far and wide.

Bistonis instinctively knew what it was, despite never having seen it before. "Minthe…" She breathed, carefully touching the shuddering leaves with her fingertips. "Mint."


End file.
